7 ways to maintain healthy blood pressure

Maintaining healthy blood pressure is an essential part of your short and long-term health. But, as you age, how do you keep it stable and supported?

Here, we look at ways to check and maintain your blood pressure, with some important tips for keeping it within a healthy range.

Blood pressure is the force of your blood pushing against your artery walls. It’s normal for it to go up and down during the day, depending on your level of activity and several other factors.

However, over time consistently elevated high blood pressure (also known as ‘hypertension’) can lead to serious health conditions, including heart attacks and strokes.¹

While the cause of high blood pressure isn’t always clear, several risk factors may contribute to it. These include:

• being obese
• lack of exercise
• smoking
• high salt intake
• high alcohol intake
• high cholesterol
• diabetes
• a family history of high blood pressure.

Blood pressure is measured with 2 numbers. The first is ‘systolic blood pressure’, which measures the pressure in your arteries as your heart pumps blood out during a heartbeat. The second is ‘diastolic blood pressure’, the pressure that’s created when your heart relaxes before the next beat. Both are measured in millimetres of mercury (mmHg).

For healthy adults, it’s recommended that you get your blood pressure checked at least once every 2 years.

You can ask your GP to measure your blood pressure, have it checked at a pharmacy or measure it yourself at home with a home blood pressure monitor.

This guide can help you gauge how healthy your blood pressure is:

• normal: between 120 to 129/80 to 84 mmHg
• higher-than-normal: 130 to 139/85 to 89 mmHg 
• high: consistently above 140/90 mmHg.²

These numbers are a guide, however. You may need to talk to your doctor about what’s normal for you. For example, if you have both heart disease and diabetes, your treating team might recommend that you aim for a target no higher that 130/80 mmHg.

Quitting smoking can improve your health in multiple ways.³ As smoking causes your heart rate to increase, keeping your blood pressure within a good range is among them.⁴

Having too much salt can raise your blood pressure, and it’s recommended that you don’t consume more than one teaspoon (5 grams) of salt in a day.⁵ Even if you skip the saltshaker, much of your salt intake may be coming from processed and packaged foods (even ones that don’t taste salty, like breakfast cereals). So always read labels.

Saturated fats can increase the amount of ‘bad’ (LDL) cholesterol in your bloodstream. This can cause a build-up of plaque in your arteries, increasing your blood pressure.⁶ Following a diet that limits saturated fats can lower your risk.

If you regularly drink alcohol, reducing your intake may lower your risk of high blood pressure.⁷ Current guidelines recommend that healthy adults consume no more than 10 standard drinks per week or 4 on any single day.⁸

Excess body weight can raise your blood pressure and is a risk factor for other health conditions, such as heart disease.⁹ To get an idea of your weight profile, check out Bupa’s BMI calculator and waist to height ratio tool. You can talk to a GP or dietitian about a weight-management plan that might suit you.

Physical activity is important for maintaining good health and wellbeing, and can help keep your blood pressure down.10 Australian guidelines recommend that those aged between 18 and 64 complete either:

• 2.5 to 5 hours of moderate physical activity per week
• 1.25 to 2.5 hours of vigorous activity per week
• a combination of each.¹¹

Stress can raise your blood pressure by releasing hormones (like cortisol and adrenaline) into your blood stream, increasing your heart rate.¹² You can reduce stress in a number of ways. This might include spending time with friends and family, exercising, practising mindfulness or simply taking a walk in nature.

Quit has a range of resources and offers online and phone counselling at 13 78 48.